DEAD SALMON ON SAUVIES ISLAND

[letsfish]

A news report on KATU tonight was a bit alarming ....they have found 200 dead salmon on a beach on Sauvie Island.The Smolts were not mutilated but very dead.The state is very concerned and the fish are being tested for chemical pollution, and other things.Several possible suspects:Oil spill two weeks ago and the sewage spill and then the already low flow of the river.Look for more info in the coming days in the news.
Personal question: So they found 200 smolt (not alot considering the hundreds of thousands of little guys heading downstream,BUT how many died a similar death only to become gull food, or never wash up on a beach?) images/icons/confused.gif

[orsturgeon]

I did not see the report... Sure are a lot of smelt on the banks these days....

Just wondering images/icons/confused.gif

[HOGTIDE]

While smelt dipping with my daughter last weekend on the Cowlitz we found a very disturbing sight.As we were walking the river banks that were littered with dead smelt, my daughter asked, "Why are these here?" On closer inspection, I found hundreds of dead Salmon mixed in with the smelt. These were larger than smolt, but too small to be returning jacks. Probably weighed 3/4 to 1 pound. Definitely small chinooks. Not only did it 'not' make sense that they were dead...but they seemed to be in the wrong part of their life cycle to be in the river. Very weird situation with lotsa dead chinooks. We were between the lower river boat ramps. Any thoughts????

[ 03-21-2001: Message edited by: HOGTIDE ]

[letsfish]

Hogtide, the fish on the Sauvie Island beaches were 3-4 inches long.What you saw I don't have any idea...if they were chinook jacks in at the wrong time then something must be really messed up with our fishery.Have you emailed the Washington fish and game folks regarding this?

[Fish Hunter]

Hogtide, Last weekend fishing out of Goble we were trying some spinners and were catching many of the small salmon you describe. They looked like Chinook to me but I thought the Chinook went out as fry. My fishing partner who is pretty up on it says that some chinook spent more time in the fresh than others. We finally swithched methods after landing 8 or so. All were 8-11" long and finclipped. Kinda weird huh? images/icons/confused.gif images/icons/confused.gif images/icons/confused.gif

[Killertraylor]

I cought one of these 10" monsters on a smaller k-12 kwikfish yesterday on the Columbia near Astoria - finclipped. We didn't even know it was on - when my dad reeled in the other rod when I hooked a springer, it was on the other end. I'm still calling it a double even though I released it images/icons/smile.gif I was wondering the same thing - what is it doing in the river - will it just die like jacks do or was it heading out to the ocean? I was hoping that it would do the latter which is why I gently revived it and let it go. My dad, the avid trout fisherman, wanted to eat it!

[HOGTIDE]

Yes, they seem to be the wrong size to be either sea- bound or migrating upstream, mini-jacks. Plus, why would there be such a kill on the Cowlitz? Smelt taken all of the oxygen out of the water???

[Ramstrong]

8-11" long is a good sized springer smolt. That's why trout season is closed right now. A lot of people can't tell the difference between a smolt and a trout and would catch limits of these "trout". 2 weeks ago I know the clackamette smolts were released and should be on their way down, It think steelhead smolts are a few weeks away. As far as other locations I don't know but they should be releasing their springers also. Let em go and hopefully they'll be back in 2-4 years. But an 8-11 inch smolt shouldn't be weighing 3/4-1 lb, I don't know what those bigger fish hogtide mentions are.

[Point-of-Sale Clerk]

Ramstrong…

I believe you are inaccurate as to the average size of a Chinook smolt. The average size is said to be 100 to 125 millimeters or 4 to 5 inches. If these fish are ¾ to 1 lb in weight they may be 1 year old Chinook as strange as that sounds. We had many “pounder” steelhead return to the Nestucca this year and many fishermen have said they have never seen them like this before.

Who knows, maybe it is the weather…

*** Clerk

[HOGTIDE]

How bout this ??? Is it possible that mini-blackmouth, feeding off the Columbia River's mouth migrated early, as a natural reaction to accompany the mass migrations of smelt this spring? I just keep trying to figure it out. These definitely were too large to be smolt.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Hogtide:
Just a thought. Salmon, especially chinook often have a stage where a male (usually) remains for a little longer, and matures. Usually they are called precocial males, sometimes subjacks. But they would be smaller than jacks, and bigger than "normal" smolts. It's just another survival strategy. My theory is it often corresponds with low water and/or low return numbers. In other words, the population adapts because it "knows" that the next year is going to be rough for them. Just a theory, but I did see it happen in Idaho one year when flows were extra-low.

[ 03-23-2001: Message edited by: chnookie ]

[HOGTIDE]

nookie,
I like yours. Part 1 solved!

Part 2: Why all the dead Salmon on the shores of the Cowlitz?